Russia Weakens Anti-Smoking Law Before Key Second Reading

Russia weakened a proposed law aimed at cracking down on smoking in the world’s second-largest tobacco market before a key vote on the legislation tomorrow.

While the bill keeps a ban on smoking in public places, it drops restrictions on cigarette sales and the right to set minimum cigarette prices, said Dmitry Yanin, head of anti- tobacco lobbying group, the International Conference of Consumer Societies. “This is a major victory for the tobacco lobby,” he told reporters in Moscow today. “The tobacco companies have managed to hang onto their second-biggest market after China.”
An aide to Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Alexei Levchenko, said the changes to the legislation were necessary to reach agreement with lawmakers, though he insisted that health goals of reducing smoking will still be met.
Philip Morris International Inc., British American Tobacco Plc, Japan Tobacco Inc. and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, which control 93 percent of the $19.5-billion Russian market, had opposed the curbs on cigarette consumption, which were supported by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and approved on the first reading on Dec. 14. Lawmakers will vote on the bill in the decisive second of three required readings tomorrow.
Russia’s government had proposed measures that would outlaw all tobacco advertising and sponsorship as well as kiosk sales immediately, with bans on trade in small retail outlets and smoking in public places taking effect Jan. 1, 2015, reports Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Tobacco and the Stars

The same question can be asked about tobacco. When performing outside the United States, many American artists routinely perform at concerts sponsored by tobacco companies in the few countries where this practice is still allowed.

On Jan. 8, in fact, the American band Weezer played a concert in Indonesia that was sponsored by a cigarette company, reports The New York Times. By playing under the banner of tobacco, Weezer is telling its fans that cigarettes are cool, sexy and fun.

With top performers pushing tobacco to children, and few laws to regulate tobacco, it’s not surprising that Indonesia has the highest smoking rate for males in the world. Artists like Weezer shouldn’t be helping tobacco companies exploit the country’s weak laws on marketing to children.

Tobacco quitters have chance to star in TV ads

Those in Davis County  who are ready to quit using tobacco products and would like to share their story with others in the state now have the chance through a Utah Department of Health program, “Be A Quitter.”
Anyone thinking about quitting in 2013 can tell his or her story in 250 words or less for a chance to star in commercials. Candidates will be chosen through January. Participants should submit their responses by mid-January, said Janae Duncan, of the state health department’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Board.
Winners will receive a stipend plus a tablet device to help them document their quitting process by detailing struggles and successes through social media and video updates, according to a health department press release.
The campaign will cast eight to 10 participants from across the state who represent a range of ages and types of tobacco use.
Participants should be 18 years and older. They will be asked to upload their own videos and social media  posts to keep viewers updated on their progress.
The “cast” of the realty TV campaign will agree to give details of the effects, both good and bad, that quitting has had on them, their families, co-workers and friends.
“Quitting for good is a hard thing to do and there are hurdles like relapsing and needing to start over. Sometimes it’s necessary to find alternatives to help kick the habit, said Amy Oliver, UDOH TPCP marketing manager. “We want this campaign to show tobacco users that they’re not alone in the quitting process and to encourage them to never give up.”

Breaking the law to quit smoking

West Vancouver resident Gary Adelson tried everything — gum, patches, willpower, acupuncture, even hypnosis — to get off cigarettes because he could feel the physical toll smoking was taking on his body. A two-pack-a-day smoker for almost four decades, the 58-year-old made about a dozen attempts to quit in as many years, but the addiction was just too powerful, according to The Vancouver Sun.
 
Adelson was a couple of days into his latest quit attempt in 2010 and surfing the Internet when he stumbled across electronic cigarettes, devices that were supposed to deliver the nicotine without the smoke. He found someone in Vancouver on Craigslist who sold them and met him in an alley, where he exchanged cash for a plastic bag containing the device along with a nicotine-infused liquid.

Reynolds wants changes to warning label on smokeless tobacco products

Winston-Salem-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. wants the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make changes to one of the warning labels on smokeless products, the Winston-Salem Journal reports.

The change would say that while smokeless tobacco is not safe, it "presents substantially lower risks to health than cigarettes.” The warnings currently say smokeless tobacco "is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.”

Smokeless tobacco products include moist snuff, snus, dissolvable products and e-cigarettes.

The FDA will hold a hearing Monday on how the agency should monitor and regulate smoking cessation and nicotine-replacement therapy products, according to The Business Journals.

Less Harmful Constituents When Heating Tobacco at Lower Temperatures?

Many of the harmful constituents found in the smoke from a conventional cigarette result from the burning of tobacco. Lowering the temperature at which the "smoke" is generated means that nicotine and some aroma compounds are still released, but the user may no longer be exposed to some of the combustion products that are generated by the burning of tobacco and which may contribute to the risk of smoking-related diseases. By measuring the air flow through a tobacco matrix that is heated in a new type of smoking product it may be possible to determine which constituents are released, at which time and at which location.

The research of David Lopez Penha of the University of Twente is an important first step in understanding the physics of smoking.

Lopez Penha has investigated flows in porous media, derived from cast leaf tobacco biomass. He has developed a model that predicts the flow of hot air through this highly complex porous medium. For this purpose the 3-D pore geometry was reconstructed using microCT-scans (micro-Computed Tomography). For the first time, his work provides some insight into the way that air flows through the small pores inside the tobacco plugs: this could open up a new way of determining which substances may be released and at what concentrations, during the flow of air through heated tobacco matrices, according to Science Daily.

Bar owners protest state smoking ban

State bar owners have been raising opposition to the statewide smoking ban in bars and restaurants, claiming to legislators and courts that the ban is ruining their business.

While restaurants have come to appreciate the ban’s unforeseen effect of increasing sales, the president of the N.C. Bar, Pub & Tavern Association recently wrote a letter to the N.C. General Assembly urging legislators to exclude profit-making bars from the ban.

Sales at Gate City Billiards Club, a private club in Greensboro, have decreased 25 percent since the 2010 ban , said Don Liebes, the club’s owner and president of the association.

“We’re different from restaurants,” he said, adding that 75 percent of his customers smoke. “The ban put us at a competitive disadvantage.”

Because of the ban, the club has lost $30,000 since January, Liebes said. On an average Friday night, the club now serves 30 fewer customers — about a 15 percent decrease.

“We’re not making any money,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before we go under.”

Bar and restaurant owners in the state were initially concerned that the ban would be an excessive regulation, said Brad Hurley, co-owner of the 42nd Street Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill in Raleigh and chairman-elect of the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association.

But some restaurant owners now say the ban has boosted sales. In a letter sent Oct. 5 by the restaurant association to the legislature, one restaurant owner reportedly observed a 25 to 30 percent growth in sales since 2009, reports The Daily Tar Heel.